[anderso]

can you help - our collie has a fear for loud noise thunder, fast jet/helecopters etc. he runs under cover and cowers - any ideas to help would be great.
 
he is a rescue and we have had him for 2 years it has taken that time to get him here and we would like for him to be able to have a live with out loud noise fear.
 
time is not an issue.
 
Thanks form Spey

[jaykay]

This isn't going to be the most reassuring but I have had two dogs with this fear, a collie and a collie-lab cross.
They got a bit more 'chilled' as they got older but not a lot.

I suppose it's a fairly sensible fear - usually something noisy is also big and fierce.

[Sylvia]

Oh!, he is so beautiful and reminds me so much of my beloved border collie who was also nervous of loud noises. Not thunder but if you broke a stick against a tree or dropped a pan etc. It was something he learned to live with but never really came to terms with.
I think it helps to stay calm and if he sees you taking it in your stride may reassure him.
And, if ever you feel you can't keep him............

[Mammyshaz]

Noise phobia isn't nice for a dog  but it can usually be helped to a certain degree. There is a good cd on the Market with a booklet of instruction to help. The company who make the Adaptil pheromone products do this cd. It is called Sounds Scary.

I went on a talk by this company about noise phobia which was very interesting. They slowed down fireworks and thunder noise and turned the volume right up seconds before we would hear it. We heard what a dog hears which also is the sound of a washing machine about to spin or an electrical appliance about to start, and the sound at the point a stick snaps. All these sounds start with exactly the same tone and is why many dogs with sound phobia can be seen to fear all of these.

The cd is part of the therapy. The therapy is a slow process and unfortunately, now is not the time to start it as ther is to be no fright noises for a few months of therapy. No thunder or fireworks etc.

You can probably get info on google, but beware, there are poor imitations of these CDs  which could do more harm than good.

[in the hills]

We had a very confident retriever who would insist on going outdoors and hiding under a certain bush, even before the thunder started. Think that one is fairly common for dogs. Not sure of a cure. I think I read somewhere to not show that you were concerned or make too big a deal about their reaction ..... not to over-fuss .... as it would reinforce their behaviour. Never had to deal with that problem much.


He is a lovely lad 

[Bionic]

I have seen some sort of jacket that you can buy that is supposed to help but i have no idea if it works.
I guess I am lucky. We had terrible thunder and lightening here yesterday evening and my dog just slept through it. 

[Old Shep]

The jacket is a thundershirt - quite expensive and works on some dogs but not others.  You can make your own body wraps which some say can help (google Tellington Touch).  You can try herbal remedies, Adaptil, cd's etc.  I am going to be doing the same shortly as my new foster collieX has the same issues. (Within half an hour of him arriving at our house for the first time we had an almighty thunderstorm! - he seems to have forgiven me:-) )


Make sure that your dog is chipped and tagged just in case he runs off in fear, and if he has a safe hideyhole, eg under the stairs - don't drag him out just leave him there until its over.  I found with a gun nervous setter pup that the answer was just to ignore bangs and she has got a lot better.  I had previously tried counter conditioning with a cd - e.g. loud bangs  = sausage , this just made it worse and put her off sausage!!

[Alistair]

My bc is scared of loud noises and sneezing

[HappyHippy]

I did some reiki with the local Dogs Trust centre, helping to tackle some of the issues that some of the dog's had - stress, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity etc. In about 90% of cases there was an improvement.
If you've got someone local who does reiki and will work with dogs give them a try, failing that I'm more than happy to send reiki to Spey, but you'll need to pm me your location (not exact, just village and county) and a time when he's most likely to be lazing around - if BC's ever laze around 
It certainly won't do any harm and might just help 

[SallyintNorth]

I have no reassurance to offer, sorry, except that he'll become more deaf as he ages and then it gets better.

Some people use Rescue Remedy or veterinary sedatives when they know there're going to be loud noises - Nov 5th etc - but that doesn't help with the unexpected, I know.

A safe bolt-hole he can always get to is a must for him, poor boy.

I have always assumed that working collies are pretty much unconsciously bred for good hearing - a good collie needs to be able to hear directions on the hill, and that command is often by whistle, so is high-pitched.  It's the good workers that get bred from, so the hearing gets better and better over the generations. 

I have had several collies react to the military jet engines, and the moorland farm was a key waypoint for the RAF so we'd get jets flying over and turning over us pretty frequently.  Ted used to serenade them with his lovely collie song... 

Collies around here have to be robust about bangs; we've a military base nearby does explosions regularly - they literally rock the houses, never mind collies' ears.

[anderso]

thanks for the info, his blot hole is beside the bed,
 
will just keep working with him. and enjoying him and his actions..
 
sorry jaykay - life would not be worth living even if I thought to move him on......
 
 

[SteveHants]

Collies around here have to be robust about bangs; we've a military base nearby does explosions regularly - they literally rock the houses, never mind collies' ears.

And round here - Salisbury plain isn't too far away and for some reason the preferred route for millitary choppers on night training is right over my bloody house, down the road and back along the A-road at the top - same almost every time...

[jaykay]

sorry jaykay - life would not be worth living even if I thought to move him on......

? I'm being a bit slow.....?

[anderso]

Sorry jaykay I am having a bit of a problem with one of my eyes and put you down instead of sylvia
 
we have fast jets and helecopters flying over the cottage on route to the exercse zones plus transports

[jaykay]

No worries, I thought I was being dim as usual 

We have a bombing range, almost out of human hearing but Skye hates it, disappears under the table and peers out at me